Union Minister Arun Jaitley will felicitate activists who were jailed during the Emergency era at a function here on June 28. The function to be organised by the state unit of BJP at the party office here will also be attended by Member of Parliament Prabhat Jha and North Delhi Mayor Yogender Chandolia, BJP said in a statement.
Terming the Emergency as the worst post-Independence chapter of the Indian democracy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said it gave him the best political education of his life as it taught him that some compromises are "just not possible".
The senior BJP leader, who was President of Delhi University Students Union when the Emergency was imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, was detained for 19 months. He said it displayed the weakness of the Indian constitutional order where the press could be silenced and judiciary "made pliable". "For many like me who underwent Emergency experience in Delhi and successfully fought against it, this became a turning point in our lives. The Emergency was perhaps the best political education of my life. It taught me that some compromises were just not possible," he said, in an article on the 39th anniversary of the 1975-77 Emergency which falls tomorrow.
ALSO READ: 39 years on, 7 things you need to know about Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi
The emergency was imposed on June 25, 1975 when the president passed an ordinance about how the state was in danger. All the fundamental rights were suspended, politicians were arrested and a heavy censorship was imposed on the media. Today on june 25, 2014, 39 years after the imposition, we still remember the trauma the citizens underwent. But what was the reason of this blot on the face of Independent India? Could India have avoided it? Who benefitted and who suffered? Read more
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